The Wrecker
by Omicron the IceQueen
Summary: He is The Wrecker. The Foreman who lost his crews in the war, searching for any that are alive. All he has is a limping ship that wants a nap, a cyber raptor...Optimus Prime could not be happier...but what is a Dantum to Wreckers? Someone pick Wheeljack off the floor.


Co-authored with StormDracona and Omicron

Added Notes:  
" ** _Text like this is Cybertronian spoken language._** "  
" _Continued text like this is human speaking cybertronian, or close to it._ "

 **The Wrecker**

Forman Comes

Considering they were looking for Decepticons, it was eerily quiet- at least to the young boy. Raphael kept pace with his partner until Bumblebee motioned for him to keep somewhat back.

It wasn't abnormal, but the fact the ground where they'd just passed over felt...odd. Raph didn't have a good feeling as he followed. One minute he was looking at the back of a yellow and black robotic calf, the next was pitch dark and dust.

The ground was sandy under him, with a strange but familiar glittering of glowing energon dust to pebbles. The boy had fell into a storage bin of drilling byproduct, the dime to fifty cent pieces to small for the Decepticons to bother with right now so these bins were pushed aside. Normally just forgotten, though recently Wheeljack had been collecting them, and then having the kids pick out everything they could, several energon bits had been arm length. Over the last year, there was a surprising amount of energon that was collected.

Coughing and trying to muffle the sound in his arm the boy blinked blearily at where he'd landed. It definitely wasn't comfortable as he shifted to get a better idea. He moved to take his glasses off to wipe the dust off because he couldn't see anything all too well. Lifting his hands only to realize he didn't _have_ his glasses on. Patting around

the bin he did his best to feel for them to no avail. Though a glint off something shiny on the ground made him squint. The familiar shape of his frames somewhat showing through his hazy vision.

"Oh no..." the small boy murmured realizing he had to get out of the bin, mostly blind and get to his glasses and pray they weren't broken. But gosh that looked like a long way down...

There was a soft clicking sound, insect like but far softer than any of the warrior Insecticons. There was a shifting beside the human boy as something came up out of the bin, it was beetle shaped but the size of a small purse dog. The thing was metal and crystal, and giving off yellow and pink light.

It was a glow beetle.

It had to be, Bumblebee had showed Raph pictures of them.

Squinting in surprise the boy watched as the smallish insect critter seemed to head tilt at him in curiosity. He wasn't afraid so much as more focused on getting his glasses before he really was in trouble, so he made his way carefully to the edge of the bin before dangling.

"I hope this isn't as big a drop as it looks..." he whimpered as he let go.

The glow beetle scuttled after, peering down at the boy that had dropped about eight feet to land in a heap. It chirped, and walked down the side of the bin, lighting the way down to where the human was, attracted to the movement but also lit the area around Raph, letting him find the hazy image that was like his glasses

The incidental help Raph gave a relieved sigh as he carefully crawled and felt for the plastic frames. As soon as the boy's fingers traced over the glass however he whimpered. He could feel the grooves scraped into the glass, not unlike the scuffing he felt on his face from the dirt slide. The landing onto the ground didn't do too well either. An arm of the frame was missing, but in a desperate attempt to see something he tried to peer through them before looking to the glow beetle.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to get out of here would you?" the boy asked as he reached out with his free hand to pat the insect like mecha creature, smiling at the soft chitter that Raph heard. Maybe, all things considering it was not so bad, Raph just had to wait for Bumblebee to find him.

...Heavy sounding steps made him freeze, the glow beetle squeaked, trilled and tried to hide. Half burring itself the light it gave wavered in and out before being a half dim glow. The steps were from a mech not as big as bulkhead or Optimus, but still seemed a bit bigger than Raph's guardian. Somewhat, not that much bigger maybe... it was harder to tell on earthy ground.

Realizing the beetle would give him away even if it was trying to hide, Raph picked up the beetle to hide it's glow against himself as Raph carefully tried to move to hide under the bin. He couldn't see the mech, though the mech was obviously fairly close if not able to see him. The little boy hoped not as he tried to move as silent as he could to hide still holding his broken glasses.

Something lit up, bright red and orange in front of Raph, followed by a clicking as a glowing, line-striped raptor like creature. It trilled loudly and a metal nose poked into the boy's field of vision.

Raph could not help the startled child reaction of giving a yell and moving away from the suddenly there _thing_ in his blurry vision. Tears honestly pricked at the corner of his eyes as he tried to wedge as far away from the thing as he could under the cart. Ironically still holding the glow beetle, almost like a teddy bear as the metallic insect hung limp.

The big thing outside was giving a growl-trill sound, the glowing head ducking to look under, but it seem to be blocked by something, it hissed and backed up before using its feet to start digging, having to get the head up and out of sight to do so. Giving the boy a chance to get out the other side. Though the human didn't know a mech was there, one hand on the bin as he knelt down on the other side from the predator cyber-beast.

Scrambling out the opening when he realized the small chance the small boy made a break for it. Glasses and beetle clutched to the small chest where his heart was pounding. Unable to really see especially with no glasses to help his already poor vision in the dark, the mech got a surprise of a small form running into his foot.

Poor Raph gave a scared cry especially when he saw the 'con'.

The bigger creature popped up, but as soon as it came into sight, long, strong mecha fingers were already curling around the human and lifting him up. Another hand was grasping the creature's crest, getting a yip as he spoke in a mech's voice, but in cybertronian, " ** _Down femme, you can't have the beetle or critter._** "

Raf curled into a ball best he could as fingers grasped him, hearing the Cybertronian just made him start shaking slightly. He really, really wanted Bee right now...

The tiny face hid, though it was in part against the mechs finger.

There was the sense of movement as the mech stood up, walking a few of his paces. Leaning against another byproduct bin as he looked at the little organic in his right palm. After a moment there was a finger gently running down Raph's back, followed by a soft chirp from the mech that wasn't all that different from what Bumblebee could do at times.

The chirp made him warily peek up, squinting slightly, the mech would be able to see the broken glasses held in one hand as the boy looked uneasy. Obviously the small organic had been around mechs as the petting didn't seem to throw him off other than the expected 'Who are you?'. Raph gave the mech a wary look but didn't move from the reassuring pets.

The red-orange glow of the mech's visor rippled and shifted, a few traces of green before being replaced with pink, " ** _...oy, I didn't crack the native language yet._** " the mech gave a huff, glancing up then down at Raph again.

The boy head tilted at the mech seeing no typical con aggression and the statement was even more confusing. It was...rather adorable in hindsight. Bee managed to not laugh since his vocal cords made the cybertronian have a human 'accent'. " _Are you Autobot?_ "

The mech chirruped, surprised, a sound that the Autobots used, but sometimes the Decepticon troopers did as well. His head tilted to one side and then the other, sorting out the words, " ** _You can talk._** " the visor flickered like a blink.

" _Sort of,_ " Raph looked a bit sheepish, it really was 'rough' how he spoke. Though the mech hadn't answered his question, at least it didn't seem he was a 'bad' mech. Running a hand through his hair he looked helplessly at his glasses. He'd look for a sigil...if he could see well enough.

There was a shifting of movement, and the little glasses were pulled away, " ** _I'm not an Autobot little lad, I'm a Wrecker. The Wrecker._** "

Raph looked worried when the glasses were taken from him but he didn't raise a fuss. He'd listen to history- Ratchet insisted if they were going to be Autobot charges they needed to know with all the artifacts popping up. So it only took a few clicks for the boy to carefully ask. " _...The Foreman?_ "

Whatever was happening above him, it didn't stop, but the odd sound was coming with a hot metal smell. " ** _Now where would a lil' thing like yea know that phrase?_** "

The human settled a bit more comfortably in the mechs palm as he answered, realizing whom he was dealing with and feeling much safer. " _Bulkhead. Wheeljack._ " Not that the cons didn't know their names already so it's not like he was telling any big secret if this mech ended up not being a 'good guy'. The metal smell was only marginally concerning.

" ** _Wreckers are on this world?_** " The mech asked surprised, and then something dropped onto Raph's head, and slid onto the glowing beetle. It looked like his glasses, only with both arms, though the glass was still cracked. The mech glanced down at the other glowing creature as it rubbed against his ankles, then upwards with a thoughtful sound. He shifted Raph a bit closer, more protective of this unexpected source of information.

" _Yeah,_ " it was all he could think to say in response. The boy blinked as he carefully cleaned the cracked glass and put his glasses on. It was better than nothing, and being near cuddled had the boy resting against the Foreman, " _Thanks._ "

The mech was not as scary now, even if Raph was trying to see him through cracks.

The visor, now in clear view, was almost more of a marble mix of reds, oranges and as the boy watched it changed. Rolling to pink, yellow and then for a few seconds it was a mix of green and blue before going back to the reds. The mech's face was stream lined for the most part, not elegant as fliers, but mostly for the metal scars on the mech's 'cheeks.' One larger line of weld marks was on the right side of his face, having likely repaired himself, and a few smaller grooves on the lower lip.

The face though seemed friendly for all that, like Wheeljack when he was playing with Miko and Raph, but could be scary when he was truly upset.

" ** _Well... sigma sent me on the right path after all._** " The mech said, and then grinned, large fangs were visible as he did so, " ** _Name's Roadbuster._** "

" _I'm Raf,_ " it was as close as Bee could do but it worked. The small boy smiled, the mechs easy nature comforting. " _Do you know how to get out? I fell down here..._ "

" ** _I do, I came down here for some more energon._** " The mech, Roadbuster rumbled, and then stood up, his fingers lightly closing over the human as he whistle-chirped to the creature on the ground, getting a chitter as his pet fallowed after him. Walking down the hall-tunnel it bounced around like a cross of a dino and a dog almost around his large pedes. It would be pony size to Raph, big enough for him to ride maybe. " ** _Good thing I found you, and before the little femme got you._** "

" _Yeahh..._ " the boy eyed the dino hopping around warily from Roadbusters palm, resting a hand on a finger not unlike how he did with Bumblebee as a sense of security.

Obviously he was used to being carried.

Roadbuster tilted his head, rumbling in interest at that small motion. He stayed surprisingly quiet, other than the naturally heavy steps, and didn't seem hindered when it was pitch black before rounding a corner and coming to one of the mine's entrances to the outside world, lower in the mountain then the one that Bumblebee entered into.

Raph peered up at him at the head-tilt but kept quiet, blinking at the sunlight as his eyes adjusted. The boy visibly relaxed and a smile crossed his face in relief.

The mech crouched down in, with elbow joints on his thighs and both hands cupped around the human he clicked softly before focusing. The visor flickered and shifted colors again as he tapped into the internet, running a sub-program for cracking new languages. This was something Raph hadn't seen before, how the mech muttered under his breath it seemed, getting used to or just celebrating for the new words and tones to use.

Blinking up at Roadbuster, Raph head tilted up at him in curiosity hearing 'English' being muttered he grinned. "Downloading English?"

"Among others," Roadbuster grinned as he looked down at the boy, his visor flashed almost all green before it faded to orange. "Not overly hard to get with near city-network you have, 'internet.'"

"That is so cool." And it was to Raph, he was a sponge for knowledge and the fact they could just...download it and speak it was _amazing_ to him.

"Wish I could do that for cybertronian... I'm really limited." Roadbuster was lucky the boy knew at least what he'd heard from him.

"I say yea doing pretty good for an organic," The green and silver mech said, smiling at the human cupped in his hands, then chuckling as the glow beetle waved its legs before tucking them up as it still sensed the other creature around.

Smiling with pride Raph was happy with the praise. "Bee can't talk so Optimus has been teaching me how to understand the tones." The boy giggled a bit at the beetle, having almost forgot about it hiding against him as he petted it reassuringly.

"Look at that, ya got a friend," Roadbuster said as his voice and accent kept shifting, settling on what matched closest to his own native one. "Now ta make another friend." He changed positions to kneeling down and lowering Raph until he could see the metallic dino head peeking over the edge of the mechs hands.

Raph gave an uneasy glance at the mech remembering Predaking. That and remembering this dino-like creature had wanted to eat him...

"Um...hi." he looked ready to hide if he needed to.

"I won't let her hurt yea lad," Roadbuster assured, "Just letting her scent yea."

"I...ah...okay..."The boy hugged the glow beetle closer not moving any further in the mechs palms as the frilled dino drew closer.

The mech gave a soft sound that had the colors dimming on the cyber-creature. It was a cybertronian word like and unlike the term 'sparking' the Autobots used off and on. "Guess yea're taggin' along with me fer now lad..." he said looking around, not wanting to _leave_ the boy here.

"I don't know where Bee went but I was with him before I fell." Raph smiled at the raptor who seemed to change demeanors quickly about him. "What's...her name?"

The big mech considered for a moment, "RoadKill I think is the translation." the Roadbuster chuckled as he grinned, the groves stretching for a moment before he stopped so not to scare the organic boy with his fangs.

"Roadkill?" The boy looked baffled but seeing the Foreman grinning like that made him smile. He'd still managed a glimpse though. "Wow so it is true most wreckers have fangs?"

"Who told yea that lad?" The mech asked as he rose to his full height, looking around likely more with his scanners before starting to walk. He seemed to be looking for something or someone as he started in a direction that seemed to head away from the possible troopers and Bumblebee. "Jackie?"

"Yeah. Miko spotted his once and he explained. Bulkhead doesn't really have any we saw so..." Raph shrugged, looking a moment towards the caves worried about Bumblebee.

"Last time I saw him, Bulk's fangs folded back, an' with that guard he had." Roadbuster shook his head, snorting before looking around, "Hmm, the slaggers should be this way..."

"Really? Wow Miko's going to be trying to get him to show them if she finds out." The amusement on the boy's face was obvious though his brows furrowed over his beat up lenses."

"...who?" Now Raph was a little bit concerned.

"Mechs, femmies, someone." Roadbuster shrugged and frowned for a moment, the scars seeming to deepen a bit for that moment, though by the weld marks being highlighted in the sunlight now. "That's part of why I came here, to find bots, find my wreckers."

"Oh." Looking up at the mechs face the boy head-tilted, before looking out where Roadbuster was looking towards.

The mech shifted his hold on the human, and then moved him to start half boosting, half making Raph climb into the wider color ridge. Not quite on the shoulder, "Just don't let that beetle go lad. I don't want it in my systems."

Squeaking in surprise Raph chambered to what seemed a safe spot beetle tucked safely in his vest. "I have a good hold on it."

"It's a pretty color," The mech noted, his voice a softer growl or purr almost, yet at the same time it was lower in volume. As he kept looking around the youth could start to catch glimpses of the green under the ever changing visor. From below

Scooting so he wasn't entirely unable to see the mechs face, Raph glances at his glowing little friend. "Ya it is. First one I've ever met too." the green was curious but the boy wasn't going to be rude to try and see what it was.

"They can eat more than energon, oils might work for yea." The Wrecker said as he slowed his walk, watching his cyber raptor as her attention swung to one side. After a moment he started walking again but moving to avoid that direction, as something clunked softly in his right arm.

The boy watched the silent exchange curiously but didn't comment right then. "That should be easy enough for me to get ahold of for it..." Petting the softly glowing critter, "They're over that way aren't they."

"Cons, troopers... doesn't sound like too many." The green mech considered, flexing his left hand and the claws seeming to get sharper by a slight change and a gleam of silver metal.

"Hope not..." Hugging the beetle a bit more in comfort, the small boy trusted the Foreman for now, though Raph still really wished Bumblebee were around.

Roadbuster glanced to the side, paused before pulsing his field with a reassuring sense as he walked. "Don't worry lad, yea got a Wrecker watching out fer yea now."

Smiling up at Roadbuster, Raph nodded. "I appreciate it. I'm just...worried about Bee. I don't have a way to contact him..."

"Comm catter says he's fine, an' keeping the cons from where he left you." The big mech said as he tilted his head, as if listening before freezing as the raptor hissed to his right.

"Is...is there a way you can let him know I'm okay?" Raph started to ask, yet when Roadbuster froze the boy ducked down, obviously experienced in needing to make himself less of a target when with a mech.

The Wrecker growled lowly, shifting as he turned to face the mechs emerging out of the trees. Moving slowly, clearly with no weapons of his own other than his claws, Roadbuster lifted a hand to Raph, picking the boy up again, "Hang on lad..."

Raph kept quiet, having learned to not draw attention to himself in these situations-instead just giving a slight nod and huddling in the mechs grip.

As he was set down, the boy could see the Decepticon troops shifting, almost hesitating as they aimed their weapons at the new mech.

"Keep yea're head down," The large form over him rumbled a warning before Roadbuster was standing back up to his full height, and grinning wide to show his fangs, "Now, yea lads really want ta try an' face me?"

Raph stayed hunkered down low near the right pede, nervously watching Roadbuster who seemed... calm with what was happening. The mech flexed his hands and jerked his right arm as a sound of a partial transformation happened. Armor plates shifting out of the way and then back into place around the new addiction forming over the back of the Wrecker's hand and wrist, then over them. Only it wasn't an energy weapon that hummed to life but a buzzing and then a clear whine of a saw starting up. The Wrecker growled stepping forward as the Decepticon's stepped back.

The boy felt his jaw drop when he saw the size of those blades, he didn't blame the troopers uneasy step back. Raph had seen what Knockouts saws could do and this one put even his to shame. The beetle gave a soft scared chitter and Raph seriously hoped over the sound of the saw the troopers didn't hear or notice them.

There was a deeper chitter from above Raph's head, before the Cyber-raptor of before leaned forward over the boy. The metallic teeth were bared in a not so sleight snarl, as a low rumbling was vibrating in her chest as the raptor flashed the colors if her crest and sides into a darker blue-green. Well, now Raph didn't have to worry about being seen, and he took advantage of that as he ducked further under Roadkill. Squeezing his eyes shut as the snarl got slightly louder.

The raptor's forearms brushed over the boy as a roar sounded, but not from her, from Roadbuster as there was a flurry of activity from all the mechs... and lots of cursing in Cybertronian on top of it all. Roadkill nudged and pushed at Raph with her forearm and then her muzzle to move him away, to the tree line where Bumblebee's own semi distant chirping was coming from.

Raph winced, wide eyed at just the flurry of activity that was Roadbuster. He picked up on the cue from the raptor and with a quick glance towards Roadbuster he let her escort him to where he saw a flash of yellow of his guardian. He didn't call out for Bumblebee yet, he knew better instead he ran as fast as he could with the little beetle still hugged in his arms. The cyber-raptor chittering behind the boy, taking half to two steps at a time to stay in pace with the human, the crest now glowing a blue-purple was muted in an attempt to semi hide, yet it couldn't stop the lights for more than a moment or two.

The cyber raptor started to growl as a mass of pale metal color appeared, crouching to attract only to yip. It's jump was aborting before it could start as Bumblebee appeared with a warning warble, one hand snapping out to grab the mecha creature by the crest, pulling it to one side so the next turned into an odd angle. Not snapping or twisting it too far as if he had experience doing this before, and his other arm shifted from blaster to hand to scoop up Raph.

It was oddly comforting feeling familiar fingers wrapping around Raph as he was picked off the ground away from creature and the fight going on. Bumblebee whistle-chittering his relief at finding the boy again, whole and alive- did that raptor hurt him? How did he get to the surface? That it would be alright now as the scout started to back up, nudging the cyber raptor away.


End file.
